


Tears

by fictorium



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-22
Updated: 2010-06-22
Packaged: 2017-10-10 05:39:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/96200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The tears come from nowhere, disrupting what should have been just another quiet afternoon in their new lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tears

**Title**: Tears  
**Author:** lauriestein  
**Pairing:** Mulder/Scully  
**Rating:** PG  
**Spoilers:** Set somewhere before 'I Want To Believe'  
**Summary:** The tears come from nowhere, disrupting what should have been just another quiet afternoon in their new lives.

**Disclaimer:** Not mine in anyway, all still the property of Chris Carter, FOX and 1013 Productions or whatever.  I haven't written anything X-Files in YEARS, but this is for a challenge comm I've started playing in, so here you go :)

  
She hasn't cried in such a long time, whether out off stoicism or sheer exhaustion, so when the tears finally come they burn as though laced with acid.

It's just a mug - a generic red one they picked up in Walmart along with the other basics to turn the empty shack into something approaching a home. For some reason, the ceramic fragments in the sink become the focus of all her frustration and Scully can do nothing to stem the saline tide.

Mulder finds her that way, shoulders stooped and head hanging limply as the last sobs begin to fade. He had bounded through the door, enthusing over the new cell phones he'd just bought but the bag falls to the floor, forgotten. Without a word he draws her into a hug, his arms slipping around her slender waist from behind.

Maybe all this time he's been waiting for the dam to break.

He holds her, stooped slightly so that he can rest his chin on her shoulder. The cold radiates from his jacket, seeping through the cotton of her shirt. Eventually the warmth of their bodies banishes all traces of the outdoors.

A dog barks somewhere nearby, and since they have no neighbors it has to be a wild one running loose in the fields. She's gotten so used to the silence that she doesn't notice it until something shatters it.

Scully lets her mind flicker through the kaleidoscope of unrealized fantasies that lurk in the recesses of her imagination and lingers for a moment on the notion of having a nice suburban home. How many long nights in the basement office had she passed by mentally decorating the imaginary building while Mulder ranted about conspiracies she hadn't had the foresight to believe?

It's never going to happen, and that's almost stopped hurting. There won't be children whose heights she marks on doorframes, William is gone for good. The scar tissue on her soul for him, for Emily has just about healed but she doesn't dare pick at it for long.

They can't even have a pet, given that they might need to pick up and leave at any moment. She always wanted another dog after Queequeg, a puppy of her own to raise, like she'd always had growing up. Scully has security now, her name cleared, but that hasn't helped her to settle. It's almost as though nobody is looking for them anymore, but she knows that if the moment comes when Mulder has to run again, she won't be anywhere but at his side.

The tears finally abate as she leans back into Mulder's embrace. Wiping furiously at her face with wrinkled sleeves, she finally turns to face him. Aware that with her uncombed hair and puffy face she probably looks more like that beast woman in New Jersey than the polished FBI agent that she used to be.

What amazes her is that Mulder looks her in the eye like he doesn't see any of that. He doesn't care that she broke the damn mug, or that she cried over it like it was some horrible heartbreak. Mulder tilts her chin up towards him with one gentle finger and places a soft but insistent kiss on her lips.

"What do you say I cook tonight, Scully?"

She nods in agreement. It's probably the safest option for the rest of the crockery.

_   
**Ficlet: Tears, Mulder/Scully, PG for [](http://community.livejournal.com/xfskylandmtn/profile)[**xfskylandmtn**](http://community.livejournal.com/xfskylandmtn/)**   
_


End file.
